Decontamination services management
By making sure that medical devices are sterilised, our decontamination services managers are making sure that our patients are protected from infection and contracting viruses.
"I made some wonderful friends and, most of all, enjoyed resolving problems and making sure our patients received a safe service."
Working life
Decontamination services are responsible for ensuring that reusable medical devices, such as endoscopes and other surgical devices eg instruments are cleaned, disinfected, sterilised and repackaged to high standards, ready for reusing in operating theatres and other areas of health care.
You’ll also be responsible for planning, training and managing staff, budgets and other resources within the department.
Roles in decontamination services management
Roles here include:
As the most senior manager within this area of healthcare science, you’ll typically:
- be overall responsible for managing the decontamination of medical device service, liaising with other agencies as appropriate
- lead the evaluation of new equipment and methods of working
- oversee the provision of a 24hr, 7 days a week, specialised, service contributing to the safe clinical care of the patient
- manage staff working within the decontamination specialities including interviewing, recruitment, appraisal, continuing professional development (CPD) and performance
- apply professional judgement and utilise specialist skills and detailed scientific knowledge to provide a high quality and timely service
- manage the whole budget for the organisation wide decontamination service
- plan and organise the broad range of activities, processes and procedures conducted by the speciality including future plans and strategies in conjunction with the appropriate colleagues
- work independently in all areas of the service and be able to work as an autonomous practitioner
- work unsupervised and manage workload with minimal managerial direction.
Within your decontamination service, you will have a range of staff including managers working at supervisory and deputy management levels and decontamination technicians [2].
Senior supervisor/deputy manager
Working at a senior supervisory or deputy managerial role, you may be given responsibility for some or all of the following tasks:
- quality assurance [3] of the service in compliance with the Medical Device Regulations
- day to day operational management of the service
- ensuring policies and procedures are updated and implemented
- staff training
- attending specialist meetings
- deputising for the senior manager
- recording, interpreting, validating and authorising equipment test results
- supervising decontamination technicians and apprentice decontamination technicians.
Want to learn more?
- Find out about the entry requirements, skills and interests required to work in decontamination services management [4]
- Find out about the training you'll receive for a career as a decontamination services management [5]